Does anyone here have any knowledge of Dr. Hugh Ross, or his "Reasons to
Believe" outfit, with current headquarters in Pasadena CA? Last night, for
sheer comic relief, I attended a lecture of his at Ohio State University. He
is, by trade (other than a moneygrubbing fundy), an astronomer, and he opened
the lecture with the advancements made in cosmology within the past year, the
greatest of which was the COBE (or was that COBI?) findings.

      Where he went after that was a logarithmic leap of logic. So sayeth Dr.
Ross, "We have seen the origin of the universe, and therefore we have seen
god." I merely leaned back and laughed...

      Using science that was clearly over the heads of what was termed "a
hypnotized" crowd, he attempted to lend credibility to his thumpery. Invoking
the names of such luminaries as Einstein and Hawking, he tried to persuade the
rapt audience that if such great scientists believed a diety was behind it
all, that we should too.

      What was most personally interesting about the presentation was the
second portion, where a panel of OSU faculty had the opportunity to rip into
Dr. Ross' arguments. Although the audience was mostly composed of
bible-believers, there were a few of us applauding the panelists when they
tore into Dr. Ross. One brought down his assertion that the chance of life on
earth "falling together" without divine help was one in 10^40 by saying that
the sheer chances of the seven hundred people in the auditorium being there
was easily far greater. Another tore his Adam and Eve argument apart by saying
that some 1200 generations is simply not enough for the vast differences seen
between the different races.

      The stated premise for the Reason To Believe group's existence is,
quoting their propoganda, "a research and teaching organization, founded to
provide credible answers to questions about God [sic] and about His [sic]
word, the Bible [sic].  Our vision is to remove doubts of skeptics and to
strengthen the personal faith of Christians [sic].  Our approach is to explain
how the revelation of truth through nature (creation) and through the written
word (the Bible [sic]) is completely self-consistent and trustworthy.  Each of
the two channels of communication sheds valuable light on the other."